POLARIMETRIC OPTICAL THEOREM

The classical optical theorem that describes the extinction of electro magnetic radiation by an arbitrary particle is reformulated by use of the diffusion properties of the mutual spectral densities. This reform ulation yields three novel coherency tensors: an extinction-loss coher ency tensor, a scattering-loss coherency tensor, and an absorption-los s coherency tenser. The first tensor is used to establish the polarime tric optical theorem and to derive the extinction-loss matrix. The sec ond tensor is used to derive the scattering-loss matrix. The third ten sor is used to develop the absorption-loss matrix and the absorption c ross sections. Furthermore, the derived extinction-and scattering-loss matrices are found to be similar to the extinction coefficient and ph ase matrices of the vector radiative transfer equations. (C) 1998 Opti cal Society of America.